'Gays can have their sexuality changed'

As the Anglican Church reached crisis point with the ordination of the openly gay Gene Robinson in America, chief reporter DAVID HOLMES talked to the Bishop of Chester, the Rt Rev Dr Peter Forster, about his traditional and controversial views.

As the Anglican Church reached crisis point with the ordination of the openly gay Gene Robinson in America, chief reporter DAVID HOLMES talked to the Bishop of Chester, the Rt Rev Dr Peter Forster, about his traditional and controversial views.

'SOME people who are primarily homosexual can reorientate themselves. I would encourage them to consider that as an option, but I would not set myself up as a medical specialist on the subject - that's in the area of psychiatric health.

'We want to help them but I don't offer it as a panacea. I am about giving honour to marriage.'

These words of the Bishop of Chester, the Rt Rev Dr Peter Forster, are certain to add fuel to the fiery debate which is raging within the Anglican Church regarding sexuality.

Bishop Forster was speaking exclusively to The Chronicle as the Church of England unveiled a report, Some Issues In Human Sexuality - A Guide to the Debate, produced by a working party of the House of Bishops, on which he sits.

The report is timely, given the debate raging in the worldwide Anglican Church following the controversial ordination of Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, as bishop of New Hampshire.

Bishop Forster, who is chairman of governors at University College Chester, is opposed to his ordination. His view is that the Church should promote the institution of marriage as the ideal building block in society - but he stresses the need for 'maximum tolerance' of people who choose not to conform to matrimony.

Talking in the study of his Chester home, he began by setting the context of the debate about human sexuality.

He said: 'Whichever way you look at contemporary society, changing patterns of family life and sexual activity are a feature of the scene, which raises all sorts of interest and views, and there are problems.

'There is a real debate over whether marriage should retain its special place in society, how it should be defended and whether there should be financial advantages in being married. In the middle of them are moral questions about what is right behaviour in the area of our sexuality.'

Bishop Forster, who says offering moral guidance was 'not a popularity contest', explained that the Church was at a crossroads in its thinking. >>>

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'Does the Church stand up against society and say basically you are wrong, the world would be a happier and healthier place if people confined sexual activity to marriage, or should it adjust to social and secular pressures?' he asked. 'That's what the debate centres around - and I am on the former side of that.

'I see sexual activity as intimately bound up with marriage and the nurture of children and the long-term commitment that marriage involves.

'The debate within the Church of England is, even if you take that relatively traditional view, what about those who are gay? For them, marriage is not an option. Should an exception be made for those in long-term homosexual partnerships?'

On this latter question, Bishop Forster claims to take a tolerant approach towards those who find themselves 'drawn' into homosexual relationships.

And he believes society should value friendship between people of the same sex. However, when such a relationship becomes a sexual one, it crosses the line.

Indeed, he accepts there are gay clergy in the Chester diocese - but he presumes they are not practising, in line with current Church policy.

That's why he signed a letter opposing the appointment of Dr Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading - because Dr John had stated he was in favour of full equality for practising homosexuals. Dr John decided not to take up his appointment.

Summing up his position, Bishop Forster called the debate a balancing act.

'To ordain people who are actively gay or actively heterosexual outside of marriage would undermine the ideal,' he said.